Direct shipping foes display alcohol bought on-line

Modern Brewery Age,  August 15, 2005  

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AP -- Backers of a proposed ban on direct wine shipments to Michigan residents sought to bolster their case Thursday by displaying wine and other alcohol bought on the Internet by an underage college student.

Supporters showed seven boxes of alcohol--mostly wine--shipped to 20-year-old Michigan State University student Danielle Weller in an attempt to show how easy was for minors to buy alcohol over the Internet.

"It was as easy as downloading music online," said Weller, an intern for the public relations firm representing the Coalition for a Safe and Responsible Michigan, which is seeking the ban.

Weller said some Web sites didn't ask for her age and most didn't request a driver's license. No delivery drivers asked for ID. On two different occasions, the wine shipments were left on the porch, she said. One shipment came from St. Julian Wine Co. in Paw Paw.

Chas Catherman, executive vice president of St. Julian, said it used an ID verification company that determined Weller was of age. He disputed Weller's claim that the FedEx driver didn't ask for her ID.

"We're concerned obviously. We have safeguards in place. We want to find out how they breached the firewall," Catherman said of those deliberately trying to order wine illegally. "Apparently they're pretty good at it."

Joel Goldberg of Wine Consumers Across Michigan, a group that opposes the ban, said six of the seven shipments to Weller were from retailers, not wineries. It already is illegal for out-of-state retailers to ship alcohol to Michigan consumers.

"Most of the wine sales to minors on the Internet are those being staged, like this one, for political purposes," he said.

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